Welcome to my new and improved Q200 web site. Many of you know that I am a staunch supporter of "build it to the plans". This will allow you to put the lightest airplane in the air in the least amount of time. After putting 15 years and over 900 hours of flying time on my Q-200 I have some opinions on some areas where built to plans isn't the best. 1) The tail wheel fiberglass spring is woefully undersize, double it's diameter with glass and change the tail wheel axle to a 1/4 bolt (I keep bending my 3/8" AN3 bolt). 2) The original disk brake system where the caliper is suspended on one side is crap. I spent more time tweaking it than anything else on the plane. See QBA articles for a much better system of having the caliper float on a pin. After changing it my brakes are smooth and nice. The brakes have very much less braking authority now (sufficient tho), I suspect the previous system was twisting binding and grabbing. Toward the end of my use of the old system upon landing the brakes were so bad that the plane vibrated violently and the canard bounced up and down (diminishing as I let go of the brakes). Be ready on those first flights, if it starts 3) The main tank fuel sender, don't use the clear tubing with a float. If you are in a crash your leg would probably break the tube (gets brittle with age) and if you ended up upside down you'd have gas flowing out the now cracked tube into your face. You can figure out the rest. I'm building a Capacitive gauge that will output to a 12V meter, will report how well it works later. 4) Build a water filter into the fuel filler neck. These $10 funnels have a removable Teflon filter element that won't let water or junk thru. 5) Make the wheel pant a little wider to allow a change to the axle location. As the plane ages the canard creeps making the wheels not straight up and down. See the "repaint" link on the left to see where mine got to after 15 years. The change in ground handling from the axle hole center hitting the ground in the center of the plane to being in line with the other axle hole was dramatic. The Q-200 is back to being like it's on rails again.